The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) developed and adopted a strategic plan for the 2005-2010 timeframe to define AASHTO’s strategic focus, to guide the services the AASHTO staff provides, to prepare for the reauthorization of the federal surface transportation programs, and ultimately to bring about needed change in State departments of transportation (DOTs). Virtually all aspects of that strategic plan have either been accomplished or are currently under way. It is timely, as another reauthorization cycle and national visioning efforts commence, to update AASHTO’s strategic plan. The objective of this project was to provide support and substantive information to assist AASHTO leadership in preparing and adopting a new strategic plan.
The research team conducted a preliminary survey and interviews with selected DOT chief executive officers (CEOs), AASHTO standing-committee chairs and senior staff to identify strategic focus areas for AASHTO, assess achievement and relevancy of existing strategic plan elements in terms of AASHTO’s current and possible future vision, mission, goals, and objectives. A preliminary SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – considered the association staff, the association as an entity, and the member departments. A survey for all state CEOs and other key informants was coducted to refine the preliminary results and identify the relative rank order importance to the CEOs and DOTs of issues that may be addressed in AASHTO’s strategic plan. Other AASHTO visioning documents were reviewed and a more extensive SWOT analysis conducted. Results were presented to the AASHTO Board of Directors and subsequently adopted to develop the organization's new strateic plan.
